Drinking Your Dinner

When I was in law school, I used to "drink my dinner" all the time. First, second and third course was a Becks followed by a dessert of some sort of fruity shot. Unless I was feeling exceptionally rowdie, in which case, first, second and third course was a sweet Makers manhattan with two cherries. Who needs dessert when you have cherries in your dinner?

Oh how the times have changed.

Tonight my dinner consisted of 4 carrots

Five oranges:

and a chunk of ginger. But of course, I am drinking it from a Basil T's beer mug

It has been 48 hours and I'm tired of drinking and I'm tired of peeing. Seriously, do you know how much you pee when you drink 32 ounces of liquid for breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner. OMG A LOT!

Honestly, yesterday was painful. For those of you who plan on juicing or doing a liquid cleanse, don't take a zumba class on the day you start and don't follow it up by teaching a yoga class. You won't have enough calories to sustain the activity and you'll end up with a blistering headache. Yowch. I should have known better. Lesson (re)learned.

Keep it Fresh!

~Terra

Day 1

Since my yearly vegan challenge slipped my mind, I'm upping my ante. I am going raw to detox and kickstart my bridal health goals.

Today is DAY 1.

For the next 10 days I will be drinking deliciously fresh juices and for the 18 days following that I will be only consuming raw foods. I will be getting moral support from Jill and my friend Nancy, and we'll all get help from Raw Food Rehab.

So what the heck is going raw all about???

Sure, you might feel like you're being healthy when you order a nutritious salad (meaning: not a pile of iceberg lettuce saturated in creamy, fatty dressing, but actually vegetables), but would you want to commit to eating all raw food, all the time? The raw food movement, sometimes called the Live Food movement, is focused on eating only raw and unprocessed foods, often organically grown. Although many are only familiar with the vegan version of this movement, there are vegetarians (lacto-ovo and others), as well as omnivores who participate. A smaller component of the movement actually promotes a carnivorous (only animal product) diet. Similarly, fruitarians- those who try to only eat fruit- are a part of the raw food movement.

One of the main tenets of the belief that raw food is better lies in the loss of nutrients through cooking or processing food. While this is certainly true to a very large degree, it does not hold across the board. A more holistic approach might be to look at each food individually to determine whether it should be eaten raw, slightly cooked, or thoroughly cooked. As with most things in life, knowledge is power.

For some foods, scientists have discovered that light steaming actually makes nutrients available in food that the body would not otherwise be able to digest- broccoli is one such food. If the focus is truly bio-availability, then knowing that the nutrients in spinach are most readily absorbed by the body when it is lightly steamed and eaten with vinegar makes it hard to argue for eating spinach raw. With both of these foods, overcooking leads to a loss of nutrients, so attention paid to each individual food will allow you to gain the most nutrients from them. Likewise, freezing blueberries unlocks many of their antioxidant properties - increasing their health benefits, which is what exploring healthy diets is all about.

So, is raw right for everyone? Probably not. Is raw right for you? Maybe....you never really know until you try it. What it all boils down to is bioindividuality. What works wonders for one person may not for the next. You simply have to experiment to find out. Is raw right for me? I guess we're going to find out! Stay tuned for updates on my juice detox and raw foods journey.

~Keep it Fresh!

Terra

I'm RAWSOME!

Guess what? I am back! I have been missing you guys so much. Life got crazy and I neglected you. :( Thankfully the fabulous Lauren has been picking up my slack! it wont happen again dear readers, I promise!

Did I tell you guys I was in O Magazine? Yup! One of the Healthy Chicks made O! it's the March issue. Page 120. Check it out! Or you can read it on line too :)

Can you guys believe it's March already??? Hello, February? Where the heck did you go? For the past 3 years I have taken the month of February off from meat, animal products and dairy. My vegan Februarys have always been about getting out of my winter funk, dropping the winter weight and getting ready for a fresh spring.

Now it’s March 1st and I just realized that I have been noshing on things like salmon, pizza and fish tacos for the past month! (Ok, 28 days if you want to get technical). Either way, I completely forgot about my vegan challenge! Oopsie.

To make up for it, I’m going to Raw Food Rehab. Penni Shelton wrote a fabulous book Raw Food Cleanse that takes you through 3, 7, 14 and 28 day juicing and raw food cleanses. It’s packed with awesome raw and juice recipes. And to make up for completely blanking on my Vegan Challenge this year, I’m totally taking my ass to Raw Food Rehab and I’m starting on Wednesday.

I’ve dabbled with the vegan lifestyle and I’ve eaten raw foods, gone to Pure Food & Wine in the city. But never have I actually gone raw. A raw foods diet is one based on unprocessed and uncooked plant foods including fruit and vegetables, sprouts, seeds, nuts, grains, beans, nuts, dried fruit, and seaweed. It’s said that heating food above 116 degrees F destroys enzymes in food that can assist in the digestion and absorption of nutrients. Cooking is thought to diminish the nutritional value and “life force” or prana of food.

Side effects of going raw? Copious amounts of energy, weight loss and better skin. Three thing that every bride wants, right? There’s one little glitch though. Stephen and I have a cake tasting appointment on Sunday. While I love raw desserts, our wedding cake will not be raw. I’m going to have to cave, taste 42 different combinations of cakes and then get back on the raw wagon. Luckily, I wont’ be doing this alone. It’s always better with support and Jill is going join me! It’s a 28 day raw foods cleanse and detox. We’re going to be RAWSOME! And the added bonus besides the healthy digestion, clear skin and energy – it will be a hell of a kickstart to all of my bridal health goals!

Keep it Fresh!

~Terra